Like A Boss, Queen Elizabeth Bans Single-Use Plastics Across UK's Royal Estates

Royal residences include Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, and the Palace of Holyrood house in Edinburgh. Lorna Roberts/Shutterstock

By Madison Dapcevich

14 Feb 2018, 10:59

Queen Elizabeth has announced the royal estates will eliminate plastic because after meeting Sir David Attenborough, because who wouldn’t listen to what that man had to say?

BBC’s Blue Planet II aired last year and showcases the disastrous effect plastic is having on the world’s waters and its impact has been felt globally. Seriously, if you haven’t seen then drop everything and watch it now.

Royal waste-reduction plans include phasing out plastic straws in public cafes and staff dining rooms, a ban on plastic water bottles in meetings, and ensuring that all to-go orders come in biodegradable packaging. Royal caters will also be required to use china plates and glasses.

Residences include Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, and the Palace of Holyrood house in Edinburgh.

“At all levels, there's a strong desire to tackle this issue,” the Telegraph reports a palace spokesman told the press. “Across the organisation, the Royal Household is committed to reducing its environmental impact.”

“As part of that, we have taken a number of practical steps to cut back on the use of plastics."

The European Union is waging war on plastic to ensure every piece of packaging on the continent is reusable or recyclable by 2030.

“If we don’t do anything about this, 50 years down the road we will have more plastic than fish in the oceans… we have all seen the images, whether you watch Blue Planet, whether you watch the beaches in Asian countries after storms,” vice-president of the commission Frans Timmermans told the Guardian.

An estimated 8 million tonnes of plastic is going into the ocean each year – an equivalent of 15 shopping bags full of plastic for every meter of coastline. Off the coast of Honduras there is an entire sea made of drifting plastics.